MUMBAI: Rajnikanth’s first official biography, titled The Name Is Rajinikanth, was released in Chennai on Thursday.

The book has been published by Om Books International and is priced at Rs 490.

Although the actor was not present at the launch, his daughter Soundarya Rajnikanth was handed the first copy by political advisor and journalist Cho S Ramaswamy.

"This is a tribute and he’s very happy that someone has taken this effort," said Soundarya.

The author of the book, Gayathri Srikanth, is an ophthalmologist.

What is interesting is that this 384 pages-book does not have an interview by Rajnikanth since he said that the book was from Srikanth’s perspective and he preferred to leave it that way.

Cho Ramaswamy lauded Rajnikanth as an honest man.

The book traces Rajnikanth’s journey from being a child belonging to a lower income group family to his success as an actor.

Almost 20,000 copies of The Name Is Rajinikanth have hit the stands. Reports suggest that the biography will also be translated into Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and Japanese.

Born in 1975, this great Tamil superstar has given innumerable hits, his latest being Sivaji-The Boss in 2007.